For the seventh time in eight days, the Braves scored two runs or fewer. That runs the streak to four straight losses, two of them in extras. But I can’t really blame this one on the offense. Here is how the Pirates’ first two runs scored.
Williams Perez took a really hard grounder off his ankle. He just lay on the ground for a while, unable to get up. Eventually, Jeff Porter was able to get him standing again, and he took a few practice pitches, told Fredi he felt fine, and they left him in the game. But he didn’t look right: as David Lee noted, he wasn’t finishing his pitches. (The injured leg was his plant foot, which explains why his motion was more constricted afterwards. On the radio, Don was saying that an injury to the plant leg might even be worse than the drive leg, because the plant leg is the one you come down on.)
I didn’t agree with the decision to keep him in the game; it seems to me that you just don’t want to take any chances. But he told them he felt okay, so I don’t totally blame Fredi for that. The very first pitch — low and outside with a different pitching motion than he’d had before the injury — should have made it obvious that he shouldn’t have stayed in. The next few minutes were torture. Each of the next three pitches was way outside and the man walked. Fredi still kept Perez in. The first pitch to McCutchen was way outside — nothing had been remotely close since the ankle injury. Then as Perez came set, he was called for a balk. The next pitch was incredibly high. The next pitch hit McCutchen square in the back. It wasn’t until then that Fredi took Perez out of the game.
So, Luis Avilan came in, and to make a long story short, both inherited runners scored. The sole piece of good news came after the game, when x-rays on his ankle were Williams Perezs-left- foot”>negative. But the team’s press release noted that he might still miss his next start.
The offense has been utterly wretched since Freddie Freeman went out. But Fredi made an incredibly risky decision to ignore an injury to our second-best starter, and we’ll be lucky if it only lost us one game.
@mlbbowman: Brigham was told he was coming up yesterday afternoon. This makes it even more puzzling why they brought Sugar Ray back to the Majors
67braves14 Says:
62 — Selling items: Maybin, KJ, Grilli, J. Johnson, Pierzynski, Uribe.
June 27th, 2015 at 11:21 am
And among these, a lot of teams would love to have a guy who can throw a 97 mph sinker like johnson. He’s been one of the best true “set-up men” in the league. Grilli also has fair value. Maybin has great value right now, but it’s less of a no-brainer to trade him this season. KJ and AJP may be useful to someone but I don’t see us getting more than a C- prospect for either. Uribe is interesting, and I don’t have a guess as to how he’d be valued bc I tend to think he’s undervalued.
Markakis also has value, but we’d be unlikely to find a taker on the 3 years of his contract AND get prospects back.
We may do best by trying to package a couple of these guys to try to get a higher grade of prospect, like chicago did to get caratini from us
Exactly, Alex.
The Braves in-game decision maker chose to jeopardize a rookie pitcher’s career as well as the game. This decision maker should justify why he should be allowed to make any future decisions that endanger either player or team.
Fire him now.
Ryan Lavarnway looked better at defense than Pierzynski and Bethancourt, and he has a bat too. I’d like to see him get some more PAs.
ManBan is a candidate to take Bills’ spot.
I guess Sugar Ray and Brigham are as well. And Folty, though he hasn’t pitched well in his 2 starts back at Gwinnett.
Dian Toscano is currently listed as “Restricted.” Will he have to be put on the 40 man roster before he plays regular season minor league ball?
We just lost a third of our rotation
It was my understanding there would be no math.
I don’t think you can aggravate a bone bruise. If you tweak something running or throwing, you stop. Seems like a non-story aside from the injury itself.
@9
Yeah, should he have have been taken out of the game right then and there? Almost certainly. If Porter checked it out and decided it wasn’t broken, was he “risking his career”? That’s going a little overboard, methinks.
10 — Dizzy Dean’s career ended because he tried to pitch through a mild injury in the All-Star Game, and messed up his mechanics to the point where he was not effective anymore.
You know, I read a lot of what Bill James writes. I enjoy his work, and I admire him as an author and a thinker. And then every month or so he just about ruins it by writing something completely stupid like, “I would be surprised if Andruw is in the Top 50 [all-time] in Center Field.”
Damn.
Boy, that was a genius wave-in by Bo Porter there.
The Braves Way this week: two singles + one double = no runs.
Wow, he should be safe.
How does one mess up a replay review?
You talk yourself into there not being enough visual evidence, I guess. There was only one angle where you could tell, but he was definitely safe if you looked at that angle.
Oh well, it was still a dumb wave-in.
Meh, with 2 outs I didn’t have a big problem with the waving.
@11 Probably pitched for more than two batters
Ballgame.
Home-road splits are probably just noise, but what would an apartment in Pittsburgh cost?
Great defense, AJP. First thing: catch the ball. Then make the tag.
This has started well. Or not.
Good morning from Tokyo, just woke up and tuned in. Maybe I should get back to sleep some more.
@12
His #50 CF in the Historical BA is Lloyd Waner, so….yeah.
The 2015 Braves are finally showing their true colors. Blah.
Julio seems to think he’s playing slowpitch softball.
I don’t like 2012 and 2015 Julio.
Maybe we will get rained out.
Amen. Buckets and buckets of rain for the next five hours would do nicely.
Rain brings, at the very least, a new variable.
Gives them an opportunity here.
Bunt, maybe?
Couple now, couple later. And a couple more later.
I knew I shouldn’t have started Julio in fantasy
Joey better start hitting. He sure as heck doesn’t field or run the bases well enough to offset limited offensive skills.
We have 2 long relievers, so let’s run Julio out there again after a rain delay to give up another run.
Terdoslavich and KJ are defensive disasters, but I console myself with the fact that they are mere placeholders. I don’t see a 2016 Braves team including either — unless it’s the one with a “G” on its cap.
I don’t mind KJ as a utility man, but on this team he is one of the better hitters.
Here comes the tease.
Some great at-bats this inning, and then Markakis hacks away at Bastardo’s first pitch.
Mr. Marte: zero point zero.
News flash: MY BRAVES ARE NOT GOOD.
In other news, I’m glad I don’t have to recap this goat rope of a game, although that slide was spectacular.
Banuelos or White on Thursday?
Banuelos
Ugh. I’m not sure i can watch the replay. Prepare for a desultory recap.
@mlbbowman: Ryan Kelly’s contract will be purchased from Triple-A Gwinnett before tomorrow’s game. Sugar Ray Marimon will be optioned to Gwinnett.
Could we go oh-fer-Freddy?